March 30, 2010

Marin = good riding

I rode up to Novato a few weeks ago to pickup my WRX from LIC Motorsports and get a taste of some Marin riding. I had a sprint workout in San Mateo earlier that morning so in the interest of time, I took Caltrain from Millbrae to SF.

I planned to ride with Phil, but he wasn’t feeling great. So after stopping by his place, I headed toward the bridge solo. I wasn’t that feeling fresh either after the sprinting so I was thankful that the wind (and traffic) wasn’t too strong on the bridge.

After riding through Sausalito, I got on this nice path that leads you right to Mt.Tamalpais. I’ll have to check out Mt. Tam sometime. Lots of cyclists were out riding: roadies, mountain bikers, and tourists on hybrids.

I passed by some body of water. Was it a lake, reservoir, or part of the bay? I had no idea because I kept getting lost. I checked my iPhone approximately three thousand times during the ride.

Following the water, I made a left turn and came across this nice stretch of road. The twisty and nicely paved road made me think of touge… except this was closer to a hill than a mountain.

Touge with bike lanes!

On the way back, I checked out the hills near the North end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

It looked like such awesome riding… I wish I had time to explore more.

This is how much higher I was compared to the bridge. and there was plenty more elevation to gain.

The view was great too.

We are spoiled by all the good road riding on the Penninsula, but there definitely is some good riding to be had North of San Francisco. Here is the route.